CHICAGO TELEGRAM.
 CHICAGO.


 Chicago, May 4, 1912.


Dear Mr. Larkin:
 To the average citizen in other parts of the
 country a true description of the fertility and possibilities
 of the soil of the Everglades, comprising four million acres,
 would read like the dreams of an over-enthusiastic
 native. But the most superlative adjectives are required
 to tell the bare truth and to give the actual facts. We
 have seen, as we stood upon the land, not only the famous
 orange and grapefruit groves but the finest specimens of
 growing sweet and Irish potatoes, beets, parsnips,
 celery, artichokes, strawberries, sugar cane, corn, peach
 trees, bananas, and, in fact, practically everything that
 grows anywhere.
 To believe without having seen the wonderful work
 that has been done by the drainage engineers in the
 Everglades is almost impossible, so there is some excuse
 for those doubters who have not seen what I.and other
 members of the party that last week traveled by boat from
 Fort Myers to Fort Lauderdale through the drainage canals
 have seen. The actual conditions as we found them were
 indeed a revelation to others of the party besides myself.
 It was not my intention to write what must sound like
 a land agent's advertisement, but one cannot begin to do
 justice to this embryonic paradise without seeming unduly
 enthusiastic and visionary. To the skeptical and unbelieving
 one can only say, "Go and see it." Our trip was an
 d'fation as well as a great pleasure and I am sure
 e all returned to paved streets, smoke and grime with
 gret and a homesick feeling for Florida and the Everglades
 country and with the hope that we may soon greet again the
.splendid people we met and by whom we were so cordially
welcomed and so royally entertained.
 Yours most cordially,
 GEO. N. OWEN,
 Editorial Staff.


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